Apparatus for handling concrete forms



June 24 1924.

R. H. :FOLWELL APPARATUS FOR HANDLING CONCRETE FORMSA Filed July 16,1920 rSheets-Sht 1 QN IIIII L wfy June 24 1924.

R. H. FQLWELL APPARATUS FOR HANDLIG CONCRETE FORMS Filed July 16 1920'3av Smets-*Sheet 2 June 24 1924..

R. H. FOLWELL A APPARATUS Fon HANDLING coNcnETE''RMs r'11ed July 1e 1920:s sweetssneer 5 Patented June 24, 1924..

1,@,651 PATENT OFFICB RUSSELL H. FOLWELL, O CI-IIICAGO, ILLINOIS,ASSIGNO'R 'IO FOLWELL-AHLSKOG- COM- PANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ACORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

APPARATUS FOR `HANDLING CONCRETE FORMS.`

Application led July 16,

17 yo all whom t may con-cern.'

Be it known that I, RUSSELL H. FOLWELL, a citizen of `the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and" State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new rand useful Improvements in Apparatus for HandlingConcrete Forms, lof which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to apparatus for handling concrete forms,especially such as employed in the construction of tunnels or the vlikewhere the forms are re.- quired to rbe assembled in collapsed andcontracted condition to be then expanded, and again collapsed vandcontracted so that'a gang of them carried upon a traveler may move outof a finished section of the tunnel to a new location for continuationof the work there to be expanded for molding the interior of anothersection ofthe tunnel. Theobject of the present invention is to greatlyfacilitate the handling of such vforms by providing a mechanism, whichreduces to the minimum the number of operations required to put theapparatus into conditionV for receiving theforms intheir collapsed andcontracted state and to expand them land collapse and expand the formsin continuation of the work; also to make all such operations much less`arduous than heretofore, while at the same time not re quiring any suchnumber of Workmen as have heretofore usually been found Ynecessary inthe working of apparatus of the general character in question.

The above object is achieved by a novel mechanical arrangement whichavoids all interference between elevating and expanding operationsnotwithstanding the connections are established for doing both thesethings; in fact both may go on at the same time, according to thepresent invention, without any one set of power-applying cony nectionsinterfering at all with another.

And the invention provides for the application 4of power to the bestadvantage at' the very outset of the expanding operation, and forcontinued effect-ive application of power inthe changing angularrelationships of the parts, without counteracting resistances. Only asingle set of expanding mechanism is required for each gang of formsoneach side of the vertical center. No4 interruption of the work isoccasioned by any necessity for uncoupling one set of devices and 1920.Serial No. 396,752.

couplingup another to the fo-rms at an intermediate stage. The inventionmakes for carrying on ofthe work lof handling the forms with mucheconomy of time.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. l is a cross-sectionalrepresentationof a tunnely in course of construction with apparatus ofthe presentinventionappearing inend elevation and ycoupled to the fullyexpanded forms, dotted lines indicating the conditionA` of the apparatuswhen carrying forms `in collapsed state; ig.l2 is a simplified topv planview of the apparatus omitting all: but one pair of forms; Fig. 3is asectionalplan view on,` a somewhat larger scale, .be-.2 ing 'takensubstantially on the line 3 3 of F ig. l and confined toone. end of theappla-` ratus; Eiga is a vertical section ltaken on the line 4 4 ofFig.l3; Fig. 5 is 'ausection taken on the line 5-5 o-f Eig. 3; Fig.,Vlais a detail cross-sectional elevation on line 1%1l Fig.' 2.

The numeral 2 designates theso-calledlinvert which is first laid, andrdesignatesv the track which is vput down over the invertY and uponwhichthe traveler runs. ,The numeral 5 designates wheelsof the.traveler, 6 lchannels constituting legsof theA frame thereof betweenwhichk said wheels are journaled, and 7 channels -constituting diagonaluprights of this frame `which rare riveted at their upper ends to ahorizontal inverted channel 8. Above vthis latter channel there is ahorizontal beam@ which supports the hinge-mountings of the forms and isvertically movable` The ltraveler isjof appropriate length toaccommodate vagangof pairs of forms closely assembledy sdeby side.Numeral 10 designates the segmental forms of one such pair, thesamevhaving hinge-plates or ears l1 to over-lap where the forms `meetabove the beam 9 Vand to separably engage the hinge-fixtures upon thelatter.. These are inthe form of notched plates 9a set on edge andsecured. upon the top of the beam, being so located that pins l0a runthrough the over-lapped ears'11.ofv the lforms may` seat in the notches.vDef' pendingelongated tubular sockets l2, are secured to oppositeendsofthe beam 9 and pass down freely through the channel 8 and looselyvreceive plain prolongations'ofjackscrews 13 suitably-shouldered `forithe'liftand also engage reversely threaded lower jack-screws 15. Thenumeral 16 designates the handle of one-of the ratchets employed forelevating the upper ack-screws andconsequently the upper beain and thehinges of the pairs of forms. The lower jack-screws are held betweenshort angle plates `17 in a channel 18 which runs centrally lengthwiseof the traveler and constitutes part 'of the framework thereof. Thischannel rests upon and is bolted to cross-channels 19 set back to backon opposite sides of and riveted to the diagonals 7 whose lower ends areriveted to plates 20 on the legs 6 of the frame. Other vchannels 21,als'o set back to back, are put underneath the channels 19 and withmating `facing channels 22 they forni transverse slideways for elementsof the forinsexpanding mechanism. Plates 23 close the bottoms of theseslideways and knees support them at the ends, said knees being comprisedof plates 24C riveted to the leg-channels 6 and angles 25 riveted tosaid plates and bolted to the bottom plates 23 and channels 21 and 19 bylong bolts 25a Fig. 1. Additional support is supplied at intermediatepoints by plates 26 riveted to the channels 21 vand bolted to thechannels 19- see F 5.

ThereY are tw'o of these cross-slideways at each end ef the traveler andthey accommodate certain mechanism now to be described through whichy'power is sup-'plied to expand the forni. 'Journal blocks 27 are'secured in the ends ofI each slideway and a screw 28 extends the lengthof the slidjew'ay and journals inthes'e blocks as most clearly shown inFigs. 3 and 4. Collars 429 pinned to the screws adjacent said journalblocks hold them again's't endwi'se movement. A slide block 30 is fittedinto 'each 'slideway and constitutes a nut through which thepscrew 28works. The slid'epblotck conforms in general te the interior contour vofthe slideway but is preferably shaped to reduce areas of contact betweenit and the walls of the slideway so as to` minimize friction. The blockis of somewl'ijat elongated shape and has a pair of. ears 30* projectingfrom its upper side'. Between these ears a strut 31 is pivote'd, thesaine being composed vof an angle-bar and a 'rivete'don pivot piece. Thehands of tl'ie two screws at one end of the traveler are reversed sothat if, for exainple, the outerinost screw in the illustration anordedby Fig. 3 is considered a right-hand screw, the other or inner screw inthe illustration would be a left-hand screw. The 'nuts on these twoscrews work oppositely to vone another, one functioning to expand theforms on one side of the "center line and the other functioning tolexpand the forms on 'the other side of the center line. The screws atthe two ends of the vtraveler work in pairs, that is to say, the two4'outk'errnost screws work together and the two innermost screws worktogether. rlhus the two struts 31 which are pivoted to the blocks ornuts 3() engaged by the two outermost screws, are riveted to theopposite ends of a beam 32;

and the other two nuts (those engaged by the inside screws) are rivetedto the opposite ends of beam 33. These beams are of such length a-s toprovide for their pivotal connection with a gang of forms. Thus as shownin Fig. 2 each of said beams has several sets of pivot ears 341distributed throughout its length to provide for as many as three pairsof forms. The forms have ears 10b to overlap ears on the beams, and thepivotal connection is made by removable pins 35 as indicated in Fig. 1.

A suitable ratchet 36 is applied to 'one end of each of the screws (36adesignating its operating handle) and it 'will be manifest that with thearrangement above described the turning of thel screws 28 will work theslide-blocks or nuts along the slideways, and the turning of thesescrews in one direction will thrust the nuts outwardly and c'onsequentlythrust the lower -ends of the struts outwardly and their outer endscarrying the beam outwardly and upwardly, expanding the forms. It willbe noted from the dotted line illustration in Fig. 1 that when the formsare fully collapsed the struts stand close to the horizontal andtherefore in the most advantageous position to exert a direct thrust inexpanding the form, and it will furthermore be noted that as theoperation proceeds and the angular relationship between th'e struts andthe forms and between the struts and the vslide-blocks changes, power isstill applied 'most advantageously to expand the forms. It shouldfurthermore be noted that the operation of lifting of thehinge-cennection between the forms at the top by the turning of theratchet sleeves 14, is in nowi'se hampered or interfered with by thestrut-connection betweenr lower portions of the fo'rin's and theslide-blocks lor nuts. The ratch'ets for operating the latter may beworked simultaneously with the ratchets for elevating thehinge-connections, without there being any working of one of theseexpanding mechanisms against the other.

Lower pairs of shorter segmental forms 37 'are hinged to the upperforms, as shown in Fig. 1 where 38 designates the'hing'e-connections,and these lower forms are adapted to yfoldl inwardly in the hinges, asindicated by dotted lines when the forms are collapsed. A chain hoist onthe Vtraveler will be used for the purpose but is not illustrated, beinga common and well known thing in form-handling apparatus of the generalcharacter to which the invention relates.

I claim:

1. Concrete forni 'collapsing and expand- V Y l l, n ing apparatuscomprising a supporting frame, crosswise movable members thereon,

means for operating said members, and struts pivoted to said members andpivotally attachable to the forms.

2. Apparatus of claim l in which the crosswise movable members take theform of nuts occupying channels of the frame, and operating meanscomprising screws engaging said nuts.

3. Apparatus of the character described comprising a frame work,overhead-hinged forms carried thereon, mechanism for raising andlowering the hinge, struts pivotally attached to lower portions of theforms, orosswise movable slides on the base portion of the frame towhich slides the struts are pivotally connected, and mechanism foroperating said slides.

4. In a form operating machine, the combination of a collapsible form;means for lifting said form; a car on which said means is mounted; crosssupports on said car;

travel screw-threaded thrust blocks on said cross supports; push rodsextending from said blocks to the form to expand the same;

lscrews operating on said blocks; and means for actuating the screws. Y

5. A form apparatus for concrete tunnels, culverts and the likecomprising a collapsible form, and a traveller with a side collapsingframe adapted to be connected at one end -with a side lof the form,block means mounted on the traveller for substantially lateral movement,and means for pivoting the frame to said block means.

6. A form apparatus for concrete tunnels, culverts and the like,comprising a collapsible form, and a traveller with side collapsingframe adapted to be connected to the form, block means mounted on thetraveller for substantially lateral movement, means ,for pivoting theframe to said block means,

and a screw for actuatinfr the block means.

RUSSELL il. FoLwELL.

